Diary-Writing as a Tool for Monitoring and Assessing - Intercultural Learning and Cultural Intelligence

Abstract

This paper outlines a research project which is being conducted in the edu¬cational context of an international Master program: In 2001, an interdisci¬plinary and cohort-based Master program entitled “International Manage¬ment and Intercultural Communication/GlobalMBA” was founded, which is currently offered by a four-university consortium that includes the follow¬ing: Technische Hochschule Köln (TH Köln), Cologne, Germany, the Fac¬ulty of Management at the University of Warsaw (UW), Poland, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE) in Dalian, China, and the Coggin College of Business at the University of North Florida (UNF) in Jacksonville, USA. During the program´s 15-month duration, a multina¬tional cohort of 25-30 students recruited from each of the four universi¬ties studies together for one semester at each university. Much of the coursework and assignments as well as the final Master thesis are written in multinational groups of three to four students, thus requiring the students to permanently prove their teamwork skills. Besides, given the in-built mobility and multinational cohort-based structure of the program, the students are continuously exposed to a variety of different cultural experi¬ences and encounters. The program´s curriculum includes management-oriented courses as well as courses on the theory and practice of intercul¬tural communication. In one of these latter modules called Applied Inter¬cultural Communication, which is taught in every location and has a strong country-specific perspective, students are required to produce reflective dia¬ries describing their cultural experiences. The research project presented here started in 2013 and is based on a qualitative analysis of students´ diary entries written during a time span of 15 months as part of the course requirements for this particular module. The project is intended to serve two main purposes: